Dragonsong characters

Appears from the start

The youngest child of the Sea Holder of Half-Circle Sea Hold, a remote fishing hold on Pern's northern coast. She has been taught music by the hold's old harper and has an unusual gift for it, both as a player of every instrument in the hall and as a maker of her own tunes, which is the part her family finds unforgivable. Half-Circle is a conservative hold where children are useful or they are nothing, and where everyone agrees that a girl cannot be a harper. Quick, capable and used to being corrected, she has learned to keep the thing she cares about most out of sight.

Appears from the start

The old harper of Half-Circle Sea Hold, who has taught the hold's children their songs and duties for many Turns and taught Menolly far more than that. Frail and near the end of his life, he is the only person at Half-Circle who values what she can do.

Appears from the start

Sea Holder of Half-Circle and Menolly's father: a hard, literal man who judges everything by whether it feeds the hold and mistrusts anything that does not. He regards his daughter's music as an embarrassment now that there is no harper to excuse it, and disciplines her for it without hesitation.

Appears from the start

Menolly's mother and the headwoman of Half-Circle, who runs the hold's stores, kitchens and women with brisk efficiency. She has no patience for anything unproductive and expects her daughter to accept the same narrow life she did.

Appears from the start

Menolly's older sister, who has settled comfortably into what Half-Circle expects of her and is quick to report her sister's lapses. She resents the attention Menolly's abilities attract.

First appears in chapter 2

One of Menolly's older brothers, a ship's captain of the hold's fishing fleet. He is the member of her family who is straightforwardly kind to her, appreciates her music without making an issue of it, and notices more about her situation than anyone else at Half-Circle.

First appears in chapter 4

The young harper sent from the Harper Hall to replace Half-Circle's old one. Newly walked the tables and eager, he finds the hold's music better drilled than he expected and cannot get a straight answer from anyone about who has been teaching the children.

First appears in chapter 8

The gold queen of a clutch of fire lizards, small telepathic cousins of Pern's dragons, who bonds to Menolly at hatching. Tiny, vain and fiercely possessive, she leads the rest of the clutch and will not be parted from the person who fed her first.

First appears in chapter 12

Weyrwoman of Benden Weyr and rider of the queen dragon Ramoth, the senior queen of Pern. Formidable, direct and impatient with fuss, she takes an interest in an injured girl brought in from a Fall for reasons of her own.

First appears in chapter 12

Weyrleader of Benden and rider of the bronze Mnementh, who leads Pern's dragonriders against Thread. He is used to weighing whatever lands in his Weyr for what it might mean to the whole of Pern.

First appears in chapter 12

Headwoman of Benden Weyr's lower caverns, who runs its kitchens, stores and infirmary and looks after everyone who comes into her care. Calm, exact and entirely unshockable.

First appears in chapter 12

A girl of Benden Weyr, close to Menolly's age, sharp-tongued and possessive of the standing her three fire lizards give her, since nobody else at the Weyr has managed more than one.

First appears in chapter 13

The Masterharper of Pern, head of the craft whose teaching songs and ballads reach every hold on the planet. Genial, watchful and impossible to mislead for long, he has been looking for the author of two songs sent to him from a coastal hold by a harper now dead.